Sean Hannity on Baghdad airstrike: Massive win of US military, President Trump

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Sean Hannity on Baghdad airstrike: Massive win of US military, President Trump

Sean Hannity reacts to Baghdad airstrike that killed Iran Quds Force commander.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," January 2, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JASON CHAFFETZ, GUEST HOST: Well, welcome to "Hannity". I'm Jason Chaffetz, in tonight for Sean.

President Trump took decisive action this week. After a group of Iranian- backed Shiite militia stormed the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, the president's show of force deploying our brave men -- our brave armed men to the region to secure the facility made it very clear, there will be no Benghazis on his watch and Iran will be held accountable.

And breaking just moments ago and according to multiple reports, General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Quds Force, has been killed in an airstrike at Baghdad's international airport.

And moments ago, we just spoke to Sean Hannity. According to his sources, this is a huge intelligence and military victory for the United States.

Sean's sources have confirmed to him that the president made this call immediately after the Iranians were identified, in consultation with leaders from the intelligence community, the military, and the State Department.

One source told Sean the president was adamant about protecting American interests and personnel within Iraq.

According now -- joining us now from Washington with the latest is David Spunt -- David.

DAVID SPUNT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jason, this information rapidly developing, but Iraq state TV reporting that General Soleimani, the head of Iran's Quds Force, was killed at the airstrike several hours ago at Baghdad airport. Now, we know that this is coming specifically from Iraq state TV.

The Associated Press, Jason, also reporting seven people killed by a missile fired at the airport.

Now "The A.P.", Jason, is quoting an Iran-backed paramilitary force and the group is blaming the United States for this attack. It's not clear if this was a separate attack. Iraq state TV has also indicated there may be two separate attacks. We're working to unfold that information.

But we have reached out to the Pentagon and our military sources. They have yet to confirm this independently.

But, Jason, this comes as you mentioned, amid tensions between the United States and Iran on New Year's Eve. Iranian protesters stood outside of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad for hours. Things got so out of control, U.S. forces had to come in. President Trump ordered approximately 750 soldiers to the region to deal with the issue.

Jason, also, just today, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said, quote, the game has changed, talking about the situation going into Iran. We're going to continue to work our sources. We'll get it back to you.

But, apparently, we know at least seven people killed, this according to Iran's state TV. Also, General Soleimani is dead, according to Iraq state TV. He was in charge of the Iran Quds Force. You see his picture right there.

Jason, back to you.

CHAFFETZ: David, thank you.

Joining me now for reaction is Republican Congressman Michael Waltz, along with "Fox & Friends" weekend co-host, Pete Hegseth.

Gentlemen, I want to thank both of you for being here. Both of you have served our country. Both of you have been over there and in the region.

I want to start with you, Congressman Waltz. You are the first Green Beret to be a member of Congress.

REP. MICHAEL WALTZ, R-FLA.: Right.

CHAFFETZ: But you have deep intimate knowledge here. Tell us about the significance. If the reports are true --

WALTZ: Yes.

CHAFFETZ: -- that Soleimani is dead and the others are dead, tell us -- to the viewers here, what does that really mean?

WALTZ: This is a bold, decisive, and frankly long overdue move on the part of the United States to take down Soleimani.

And just so everyone knows, he is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers, thousands if not tens of thousands of people across the Middle East.

He's the equivalent of Iran's head of CIA and Special Forces that runs all of their militias and proxies across Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. And particularly during the height of the Iraq war, were running the Iranian- backed Iraqi-Shiite militias that were bombing, shooting, ambushing, and killing American soldiers, and that then staged this -- I don't even like to call it a protest. This was an attack on a U.S. embassy.

And I think this was the right move on the part of the president. It's proportional. It's not attacking Iran directly. But it's taking down the head of their special forces that have been killing Americans for years.

So, I fully support the president in this move and Iran needs to hear this loud and clear -- if they continue to escalate, this president, this commander-in-chief, will not stand for it. And they will feel the pain, the consequences of their actions.

CHAFFETZ: Now, Pete, you're joining me here on set in New York. This is a huge victory, if it's true for the intelligence community to have actionable intelligence and a president that actually takes immediate decisive action when he gets that intelligence.

PETE HEGSETH, "FOX & FRIENDS" WEEKEND CO-HOST: Well, the congressman is entirely correct. This is a huge move for our commander-in-chief to have the intelligence at this moment with everybody on the sidelines saying, what happens next, to then escalate -- this isn't escalation. I think it's proportional. I think he's right.

CHAFFETZ: Yes.

HEGSETH: But to kill the top commander of the Quds Force -- this is Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This is the designated terrorist organization of the Iranian state. They're not just in Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan.

They're with Hamas. They're with Hezbollah. They're surrounding Israel.

This is the top anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-Western force in the world.

This would be like -- during the Iraq surge, when I served in Iraq or shortly thereafter, the insurgents killing General Petraeus. I mean, this would be the equivalent of Schwarzkopf or MacArthur or any conflict.

Now, it doesn't mean we're inclined to have to do more or go to war with Iran. What it means is they're reminded today, like they are every day in the Trump administration, that the Americans are the top dog. That we can find you where you are -- we will find you at the Baghdad International Airport when you think you're safe because you think you control the Iraqi regime, you think that's your backyard.

No, no, no. We got intel. We got weapons. We can touch you anywhere.

And Colonel Waltz is totally right. The amount of Americans killed by Soleimani, this guy is going to rot in hell, good for him, right where he is.

CHAFFETZ: Yes.

HEGSETH: Because he's got American blood on his hands. This is long overdue.

And good on President Trump. You can do this without calling for a larger Middle East war, which the critics will have or say to this president. You could be strong without getting dragged into something you don't want to be a part of.

CHAFFETZ: Congressman, this does beg the question --

WALTZ: Yes.

CHAFFETZ: -- why was Soleimani, somebody as senior as it gets within the Iranian regime, in Baghdad?

I mean, let -- if there are people that have any doubt about Baghdad's or, you know, about the Iranian's fingerprint on what was going down at the embassy, why was this person actually in Iraq?

WALTZ: That's right. Well, he was in Iraq. He was with the head of the Kataib Hezbollah that just rocketed our base and killed an American and then staged this attack on our embassy. Soleimani was with him.

The head of the Kataib Hezbollah says he's a Soleimani soldier.

So, you know, there's another piece to realize here is that the Israelis have said for years in the number of reports that they have wanted to take action against him and the Obama administration declined it. I don't know the veracity of those reports. But they have certainly been out there for years.

We've had opportunities to take him down and took decisive action on the part of our commander-in-chief.

And for the critics who are going to say this is warmongering -- no, this is peace through strength. This is deterrence. And this is what the Iranian regime understands. They are emboldened by perceived weakness and they would continue their attacks unless we took strong action, and they are deterred by strength and when we impose consequences.

So, again, this is absolutely the right proportional move. We're not -- we're not sending a million American troops in to invade Tehran. This is taking out a designated terrorist who has American blood on his hands as he was in Iraq conducting malicious activities against our forces, against our allies.

CHAFFETZ: And, Pete, you've been through this. You've seen this enough.

For a president to take such fast, quick action -- I mean, you have an apparatus that has to be involved, right? You've got Robert O'Brien, who's the new national security advisor. He's going to be involved. The secretary of defense, the head of the CIA -- I mean, there are people that would have to be in a need-to-know basis.

But then for the forces to go into action and actually take out these targets in such a swift manner -- I mean, that's pretty amazing.

HEGSETH: It means being there, being in Iraq, continuing to have some level of presence there is important and having the intelligence to do that.

CHAFFETZ: Right.

HEGSETH: It also means when the president signaled he's sending 750 troops and possibly 4,000 from the 82nd Airborne, he in his mind had already made a decision that if a strike like something like this was possible, we're going to have troops forward deployed to react to it.

It also, as the Congressman mentioned, it's such a contrast to the Obama administration. The guy responsible for the attack, not just riots -- attack outside of our embassy in Baghdad, was sitting in the Oval Office with Barack Obama in December of 2011 and Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, by the way, as they're trying to forge an Iran deal that includes pallets of cash after we surrender in the Persian Gulf.

Contrast that with him riding and we respond by killing their top dog, again, in Iraq, because Iran's influence in Iraq, Jason, can't be understated how much they have taken advantage of the vacuum, fighting ISIS, but also using it to consolidate support inside -- inside Iraq to control Iraq. It's a bad situation there.

We don't have to get tied down. But the world is a better place that this general is gone. And Iran is going to hear it. Tehran heard something tonight and they heard (ph) President Trump.

CHAFFETZ: They certainly did. And you have a president in President Trump who actually will make decisive issues and pull the trigger when need be.

Now, Congressman Waltz and Pete Hegseth, stay with us.

Sean Hannity has also just confirmed that the United States military is now on high alert. Remember, we have about 60,000 people in the region there, but they're prepared for further action if Iran dares to retaliate.

Let's go to Lucas Tomlinson. He's the FOX News' Pentagon producer who's on the phone with us with the latest on the top Iranian commander who was reportedly killed tonight.

Lucas, what are you hearing?

LUCAS TOMLINSON, FOX NEWS PENTAGON PRODUCER (via telephone): Well, Jason, of course, only certain people could carry out an attack like this. That's the U.S. military, the CIA, and possibly the Israelis. But all, you know, indications are this was some -- a drone strike carried out from the U.S. military, the CIA.

The Katyusha or unguided Katyusha rockets launched at the Baghdad airport do not just happen to destroy, you know, an SUV driving down the highway from the Baghdad airport carrying, you know, Iran's senior Quds Force commander responsible for all the external operations.

Just to give you an idea of who Soleimani is, as Congressman Waltz mentioned, he's responsible for killing not just hundreds of Americans troops, but the Pentagon has a number, Soleimani and his Iranian-backed Shia militias are responsible for killing over 600 American troops during the Iraq war. And if you look at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, there's a lot of graffiti sprayed on the walls of the embassy from these Iranian- backed militia and their supporters, and the words Soleimani is our leader was spray-painted on different parts of the embassy just to show who was in charge, who ordered that attack on the U.S. embassy.

And the fact is these weren't just protesters, this was an attack. Of course, it was thwarted not just by the Army soldiers that were there, but also the marines came in.

Back to Soleimani, he was designated a terrorist, Jason, in 2005 for his role in supporting terrorism throughout the Middle East. And in October of 2011, he actually orchestrated an attempted an assassination on Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C., Adel Jubeir, who was dining at Cafe Milano in Georgetown, and the assassination attempt was thwarted, but it certainly puts Soleimani's name on the radar for all to see.

And my colleague Jennifer Griffin and I reported back in 2015 that General Soleimani had flown to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin and this was before Russian forces entered Syria to a great extent. They already had the warm water port in Tartus, but if you remember, to shore up the Assad regime, the Russians sent dozens of fighter jets, thousands of troops, and Soleimani was part of that because, of course, the Iranians and the Russians supported the Assad regime.

So the fact that Soleimani appears to have been taken out tonight is certainly a major win for the U.S. military and certainly for the families, those hundreds of American soldiers that were killed during the Iraq War at Soleimani's hands and certainly the hands of his henchmen.

CHAFFETZ: Lucas, thank you for that report.

I want to bring back in Congressman Michael Waltz and Pete Hegseth, both have served our nation, both have been in the military, both understand the situation.

Congressman, your reaction to the report we just heard?

WALTZ: Well, you know, I want to address the notion that Iran is trying to put on an international community and that frankly men are espousing in Washington that just everything was fine under the Iran deal once President Obama entered into that deal. That is absolutely not the case.

Soleimani, at the direction of the ayatollah, he reported directly to him, was killing tens of thousands of people across Syria, across Lebanon, across Yemen, and across Iraq. The militia that he led were responsible for massive human rights abuses, not to mention the American blood on his hand.

And I think for the president to pull out of the deal that was going to eventually lead to an Iranian nuclear bomb while they were conducting terrorist activities, while they were building a missile program, was absolutely the right move. If there's anyone who has escalated this program or this -- or this problem, it was Iran killing an American just a few days ago.

And if I could just say one quick thing there, if we could please stop referring to him as an American contractor as though he was some type of lesser individual. It was an American, period. And whether you're a soldier or civilian, it doesn't matter.

And I think, again, this was absolutely the right move. It was long overdue and it's been -- it's been kind of out there under multiple administrations.

This president, whether it was moving the capital to Jerusalem or whether it was other things that he promised, you know, promises made, promises kept. He is not going to put up with this kind of activity. And he's not going to put up with an American embassy being stormed, period.

CHAFFETZ: Yes. And one of the disgusting things I saw on the television there where some of these people on the far left of the equation calling this, you know, President Trump's Benghazi. You know what? There was a huge difference.

We have a video here I want to show you. This is actually -- as we pull up the video, you're going to see that there was an actual response from the United States, that Donald Trump actually was able to get people in there and have a response where the Marines actually came -- they actually responded to the attack.

WALTZ: Yes.

CHAFFETZ: And we were able to put people on the roof and bring in Marines and fortify that embassy.

HEGSETH: Yes, ultimately, the -- the media can say what they want about the response. But there's -- there's your video right there.

WALTZ: Yes.

HEGSETH: That's what the United States of America looks like when an embassy is under siege is under siege under President Trump.

CHAFFETZ: That's the way it should be.

HEGSETH: The Marines are showing up in real-time with overwhelming force.

And, oh, by the way, thankfully we didn't have to shoot our way out of the embassy. But you know they would have been authorized to do so if necessary.

And in this case, they had the latitude to use rules of engagement to defend themselves if they needed to. There was going to be no stand down order. But they had the discipline to realize, we don't need to be drawn into negative propaganda on somebody else's terms.

You know what we'll do? You're going to trash our embassy? We're going to wait a day or two. We're going to find out where Soleimani is, and then we're going to put him in the grave.

And I've got my phone right here while you've been talking, Jason, the amount of people reaching out to me who I served with, they said this is about as big as bin Laden. This is about as big Baghdadi.

WALTZ: Yes.

HEGSETH: What Congressman Waltz is saying is entirely correct. The amount of American blood on his hands, what he's done in the world to spread terrorism against our allies in Israel, against our allies around the globe, against American citizens across the globe cannot be understated.

Now, it doesn't mean -- I think this needs to be -- it can't be understated either, this doesn't mean our response needs to lead to a ground war, needs to lead --

WALTZ: Right.

HEGSETH: -- to a shooting war.

And that's immediately where the media is going to go.

CHAFFETZ: Right.

HEGSETH: And you -- this president was elected to say, I will not get involved in endless wars that have no end in sight.

We're -- by the way, remember where he -- where this strike took place -- in the Baghdad International Airport where all of us hoped we wouldn't be 15 years after that conflict started. But there we are with Iran more involved and in control than we ever would have envisioned them to be.

If anyone understands the need not to get entangled, it's President Trump.

At the same time, he's dealing with the consequences of cowardly foreign policies of the Obama administration that opened the door for the Iranian regime to think they could get a nuclear bomb and kill Americans or put them on prisoner boats in the Persian Gulf with no consequences, all of that adds up.

Now, they're meeting Trump foreign policy, which is American lives come first. We're not going to let your militias trash us. At the same time, good luck trying to draw us into a war. We'll let you kill each other before we put American troops in the middle.

CHAFFETZ: And I think part of what the people are seeing and people are -- I think feel good about, is that you have a president in Donald Trump who is responding in real-time proportionately and that the world -- the world leaders need to know that if you mess with the United States of America, Donald Trump's got our back and that the military is going to work seamlessly with our intelligence community and the State Department and everybody we possibly can.

We don't want war, but we are going to defend ourselves and we are going to fight back and we're going to take out the appropriate leaders if need be.

Now, hopefully, calm will prevail, but Iran better get the message that you're not just going to come in and trash the United States of America and then just walk away.

And there is a reason, though, Congressman Waltz, that these people actually retreated, right? They didn't stay in that embassy. They retreated. That's because the Marines came in to help fortify, correct?

WALTZ: Right. Yes. I think that's one piece. It was a show of strength on our part, which is what they respect, again, emboldened by weakness, deterred by strength.

But I think there's a -- there's a political aspect of this as well in that the Iraqi government needs to decide who they're going to align with.

HEGSETH: Yes.

WALTZ: We provide billions in loan guarantees, we provide training, and equipments, and actually the Iraqi people are sick and tired of their leaders being beholden to Iran. They see the miserable state of the Iranian economy and the Iranian people, and they don't want to go that route. But the Iraqi government needs to make a hard decision.

If I can make another point, Jason, there's going to be a lot of critics in Washington -- Pete's absolutely right, that this doesn't mean we're going to some kind of ground war. But it also doesn't mean that we can just pull everybody home, stick our head in the sand, and wish these problems away.

CHAFFETZ: Totally.

WALTZ: The reason we can hit this terrorist leader with the drone strike, the reason we have the intelligence is we have a small footprint of special operators forward. And, for me, I want to be fighting away games, not home games.

CHAFFETZ: Yes.

WALTZ: And there's a lot of voices saying, let's just pull everybody out.

Too hard, too long, too difficult, let them take care of it.

That problem will follow us home and it will hit our allies like Israel and those in Europe as well. This is why America has to fight forward.

CHAFFETZ: Congressman Waltz, Pete Hegseth, please stay with us. Don't go away.

But joining us now on the phone is Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North.

Colonel North, when you see this breaking news and the reports that we're hearing, what's your reaction to that?

OLIVER NORTH, RETIRED U.S. MARINE LIEUTENANT COLONEL (via telephone):

Well, applaud. The bottom line of it is, Soleimani has been a purveyor of terrorism for the Iranians for better than a decade.

I've actually got footage that I shot in 2017 as we're getting ready to go cover the attack on Mosul. And you could see Soleimani's convoy pull up to the gates and actually get turned around, not by the Iraqi government, but by the Kurds. And you can see that all happening in that footage that I provided back to FOX when I was still working there.

Here's the bottom line of this thing, Jason. The bottom line is Soleimani was the purveyor of more terrorism than any other individual than Osama bin Laden. And Congressman Waltz is absolutely right -- he's killed more Americans than anybody else since then.

And the remarkable thing of it is the intelligence that's been collected to find out where he is, when he's going and when he's going there.

And one of the things that our so-called mainstream media constantly does is it berates our president for denigrating the people who are involved in our intelligence collection. The reality of it is, he knows more about it than the swamp or any of those never Trumpers ever imagined. And the bottom line of it is, if we did, indeed, get Soleimani, we have reduced the number of terror attacks dramatically.

Here's the bottom line. There are two governments in Baghdad -- one is the pro-American government that is counting on us to continue to train and assist their military, and help to provide information that's very important to countering terrorism and protecting their country.

The other one is the Iraqi government that is beholden to the Iraq -- the Iranians. The Iranians have long wanted a free access going all the way from the Iraqi-Iran border all the way to Syria and then, of course, the Beqaa Valley and attacking Israel. The Israelis provide an enormous amount of intelligence on what's happening in their border with Lebanon and Syria.

The good news is, we still got our own independent intelligence that shows guys like Soleimani transmitting orders, giving instructions on how to attack Americans.

CHAFFETZ: Well, you know what, though? You know what, Colonel North?

NORTH: Yes.

CHAFFETZ: He ain't doing that anymore. His days are over doing that.

(CROSSTALK)

NORTH: I'm actually -- I'm hopeful I talked to several people since all of this started breaking a few hours ago. I'm confident that they're right.

I'm hopeful that they're correct, that Soleimani is no more. That's a good thing for every American and every freedom-loving person in the Middle East. That's the bottom line.

CHAFFETZ: Oliver North, we got -- thank you. I've got to keep going.

If you're just joining us, according to multiple reports and sources to Hannity, the top commander of Iranians' Quds Force has been killed by a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad.

And coming up just ahead, Sean Hannity himself will be calling in. Do not change the channel. A lot more to come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHAFFETZ: This is a FOX News alert.

The top Iranian commander, Qassem Soleimani, has reportedly been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq.

Joining me now on the phone is Sean Hannity himself.

Sean, thanks for joining us. I know you're out there vacationing with your family.

But you have contacts, amazing contacts in the intelligence community, the White House, the State Department, all over, what are you hearing at this hour?

SEAN HANNITY, HOST, "HANNITY" (via telephone): Hey, Jason, number one, happy New Year to everybody.

Honestly, I've been on the phone for the last 2 1/2 hours. Let me just backtrack a little bit so everybody understands here. What happened tonight is a massive, huge win for our military, our -- and our military capabilities, foreign intelligence community, in coordination on every level with the State Department, the Defense Department, Chiefs of Staff, the president himself.

If we go back to where the beginning of this is here, the -- and I confirmed this now with multiple sources and multiple departments, the president was told beyond any doubt that American lives in that embassy were at stake. One person familiar that was in the room that heard the president said, our people will be protected. This will not be Benghazi.

And -- but there was a real clear and present danger to all of the Americans that were working inside of Baghdad. So, they acted within one point somebody -- the president asked the question among some of his military and cabinet and intelligence and State Department people -- well, how long is it going to take to mobilize? And the words, that's not fast enough, and everybody said, yes, sir. And they got it done in really record time.

The great intelligence victory here is -- we've got to remember that Hezbollah, one of the things that Iran is best known for, is they fund all of these terror groups and fight proxy wars and fight proxy wars as they've been doing in Yemen and elsewhere around the world. We know the Iranians were responsible, Quds Forces in particular responsible for the killing of many Americans in Iraq during the latest conflict and the latest war there.

And they have been sowing discord in the entire region.

One of the outcrops of that that has probably created a moment in history that we may be able to look back on, Iran has singlehandedly, the fear of Iranian hegemony was creating an alliance that might have been impossible just, you know, a few short years ago, and that is you have the Israelis, the Americans, the Jordanians, the Egyptians, and the Saudis all in unison against Iranian potential nuclear capability and their military aggression.

One of the president's big point that I think not only paid enough attention to was why would anyone ever drop $150 billion in cash and other currency on the tarmac for the mullahs in Iran without any real checks and balances any place, any time inspections. But backtrack here.

So, the president, according to all sources was told, American lives in that embassy are in immediate jeopardy, that there's a clear and present danger. The ability of the military, our intelligence community, the State Department, and the president making the call, very quickly, you know, understood that the Iranian forces on the ground boar a direct threat to the American people.

Once the intelligence was confirmed, once the understanding that they were there to sow the discord and discontent, the president acted as quickly as possible, taking out this top general is probably one of the -- it's right up there in my view with taking out Baghdadi in terms of the importance of stopping Iranian aggression inside Iraq. The Iraqis, as much as we give them to support them, militarily, were not capable of protecting our people on the ground there.

CHAFFETZ: No. The speed and the fact we have a president that will make a definitive decision is a huge part of this.

And I really am struck that this person was in Baghdad. So, if there's any question of Iranian influence in trying to sow discord in Iraq, we're taking this guy out in Baghdad.

HANNITY: Well, and that's very crucial because what -- the only reason and the only way -- look, your years in Congress, you never would have imagined an alliance between America, the Israelis, the Egyptians, Jordanians, and Saudis, and the only reason that alliance, the intelligence sharing, the strategizing at a level that nobody ever thought possible is happening is out of a real, clear, present danger that is posed by Iran and the possibility, of course, of their desire to acquire nuclear weapons which if that ever happens presents a great danger to the world is one of the component here, politically, though.

Remember one of the president's successes is that for the first time in 75 years, America is now a net exporter of energy and geopolitically and strategically, Iran and the Straits of Hormuz in particular, which is what, 20 by, you know, 40 miles.

CHAFFETZ: Right.

HANNITY: We have you know 30 percent to 40 percent of the world's oil supply going through those straits, it is less strategically geopolitically important to America now than ever before. But we have these other incidents of saber-rattling, the ships taken hostage, the other threats Iran has been making in the region, the proxy wars that they have been fighting, the terrorist groups like Hezbollah that is responsible for what was happening, this was Iranian aggression against us. This was Iranian strategy, Iranian money, Iranian proxies, that put American lives in jeopardy and the president very quickly acted.

And I'm also being told tonight, and I've been able to confirm tonight, that the -- right now, our military, our State Department, our president, everybody is on high alert. Every option is, quote, I was told, on the table, and that American interests in Iraq and the region will be protected. Those are the words -- those are the exact phrase I was told.

CHAFFETZ: Yes, if anybody has any doubt about the resolve of President Trump to protect Americans, I think he's shown in protecting that embassy and taking down the threat.

Remember, the number one threat out there, the number one purveyor of terrorism has been Iran. And when the president put the sanctions in place, I think one of the back stories here is that Iran is really falling apart in terms of its economy. And there's a reason why Iran came out after us first. It's because those sanctions were really taking an effect back home in Iran.

HANNITY: Well, the untold story, and by the way, this is also been working with China. Remember, China -- the only reason we're getting any discussions and any movement by China is that the president's tariffs have caused the Chinese economy to literally -- it's the worst they've seen in three decades, maybe longer now. That is now brought the -- the Chinese to the table and is creating an atmosphere where the president is negotiating more favorable trade deals.

But you know, you have to remember that the president also was adamant about not giving in to Iranians and within Iran, very underreported, is the fact that the -- the instability within the country that -- that daily protests have been breaking out everywhere, and reports that American founders and American framers are -- are being quoted. And that the people that are in the streets protesting are doing so at great peril because they know the mullahs in Iran will stop at nothing to maintain their power.

But there's no doubt, economically, that the Iranians have taken a massive financial hit because of the president's sanctions. And it's amazing, too, when you look at politically speaking, you know, you had one -- one -- you had the Biden-Obama foreign policy, which was appeasement. And $150 billion did not buy any goodwill from the Iranian mullahs.

They continue to fund terrorism. They continue killing Americans in Iraq.

They continued to fight proxy wars all throughout the region. They continue to represent a clear and present danger to the world because they kept saying that, you know, death to America, death to Israel, threatening to wipe Israel off of the map, wipe America off of the map.

So, the only way -- well, look -- if Donald Trump cured cancer in the minds of some in the media mob and the Democrats, you know, they'd want to impeach him for curing cancer. So they're never going to give him the credit that would be due here. But the speed at which our military and our intelligence community and the president and the State Department was in all hands -- I was told this, it was all hands on deck.

Once America -- it was identified that American lives in that embassy were in jeopardy, and they were in jeopardy, everybody was all hands on deck. I was told the president demanded the speed of light to get our military on the ground. We saw the show of forces in their arrival. Apache helicopters were called in.

And I'm also told that apparently, every plan is in place for any possible attempt at retaliation by the Iranians or their proxies or their terror- funded groups like Hezbollah. So, you know, obviously, an ongoing and developing story.

But I will say the big headline is, this is a huge victory for American intelligence, a huge victory for our military, a huge victory for the state department, and a huge victory and total leadership by the president.

It's the opposite of what happened in Benghazi. The exact opposite. And you know Benghazi because you investigated it.

CHAFFETZ: Yes, and just the video we're actually showing up on the screen right now, Sean, you never saw that at Benghazi because nobody ever ordered ever anybody to go to Benghazi and rescue those people and to see those marines landing to provide support. I'm telling you, that buoys up our troops and they should be proud of this president.

HANNITY: I got to -- I got to know the guys that were in the CIA annex.

My buddy Tanto Paronto, and all of his mates. And remember, Sean -- oh, what's his name? I'm forgetting his name right now.

He lost his life in the -- remember, they were told -- I've interviewed them many times. They were told to stand down. They knew our embassy was under attack.

And after being told, and again, this was what they told me in the studio you're sitting in -- they were told four times to stand down. They risked their entire lives, their careers. And they went to save their fellow Americans and, in fact, were able to rescue dozens of Americans because of their bravery.

And had they not done that, more Americans would have died. We lost the ambassador, Ambassador Stevens, we lost three other people, including some of these brave men and women that actually took the call and really disobeyed orders to protect their fellow citizens.

CHAFFETZ: Yes.

HANNITY: The same thing likely would have happened here. And I was told that by members in the intelligence community, sources at the State Department, and the Defense Department tonight repeatedly, that this was a real, clear, present danger to American lives.

CHAFFETZ: Yes. It really is amazing. Sean, thank you so much for joining us here. I really do appreciate it. And --

HANNITY: I love calling in to my own show. I was supposed to be on vacation, you know?

CHAFFETZ: You know, there's a little joy for me to cut you off.

HANNITY: I will say this. I want to say one last thing.

CHAFFETZ: Yes.

HANNITY: Look -- we are so blessed that we have the greatest fighting force on the face of the earth. And, you know, in all seriousness here, every time they go into combat, every single time, they're risking their lives so we can live free here. I'm not being, you know, flippant about it at all.

CHAFFETZ: Yes.

HANNITY: I will tell you, what they do and what they have accomplished here is an amazing feat all to defend America, American interests, and American lives on the ground abroad. And they all deserve our praise.

I know some will politicize this because they would politicize curing cancer if it's Donald Trump involved. But this is nothing but a massive victory for all aspects of our government.

By the way, and I've been so critical about the 1 percent in our intelligence community that abuse power -- this is the 99 percent that do a hard job every day to save us and protect us. These are the brave men and women that served every day in the greatest military force on earth. And a president that is strong enough, decisive enough, to make the right call at the right time with the right advice from the best people frankly for the best fighting force on the face of the earth.

CHAFFETZ: Sean Hannity, thank you so much for joining us --

HANNITY: Jason, thank you.

CHAFFETZ: -- on your own show. I really do appreciate it.

All right. Joining us now with react -- more reaction to tonight's breaking news is Congressman Doug Collins of Georgia.

Congressman, you also served in the military. When you hear what Sean Hannity is reporting about what he's hearing about from the intelligence community and whatnot, and you hear this reporting -- this report tonight, what's your reaction?

REP. DOUG COLLINS, R-GA.: And, Jason, this is good news.

As someone who still serves in the U.S. Air Force, this is -- this is the kind of stuff that makes you proud.

I mean, we've looked at it tonight (ph), what's been reported is that really the crown prince of terror, Soleimani, is dead. If that'd be true, then there are millions of lives that can be -- they rest easier tonight because his sole job was to do -- just export terrorism throughout the Middle East and do so in Iraq. To be caught right there in Baghdad is appropriate.

But it also shows that this president, using our military, our intelligence, our State Department, doesn't draw red lines. He says, no, we're going to act. We're not going to threaten. We're going to actually do something.

And that's a difference, as you and I saw from Benghazi going on. But tonight, this is a good night for the military. It's a good night for the world.

Is still it an unsafe place in many ways? Yes, but there's one less terror out there, villain, who has been terrorizing people for years.

And I've got to go back to it. This is a president who stood up, who put sanctions back on Iran. This is what actually got them to the table to start with. And the previous administration walked away.

This president says, no, we're going to put you in sanctions. If you're going to participate in the world economy, you're going to have to actually do something that actually look like you're a participant in a civilized society. Tonight showed them -- do not mess with America.

CHAFFETZ: No, and this is a well-oiled machine to have all these different components in the intelligence community, the State Department, the foreign affairs type of folks, and the United States military who's prepared to fire a gun and use a drone when they need to do it. But all of those moving parts don't work unless you have a president who's adamant that when we need to take action and there is a clear and present danger, we're going to take that action.

COLLINS: Jason, you can't be any more right than that. I mean, you have to have -- you can have everything in the world right, you've got all the information, have all the parts in place. But if you have someone who is not -- who's afraid to literally pull the trigger or to give the order, then you have nothing in part (ph). And we've seen that too much in the Middle East.

And this president has said, I'm not going to do that.

And it goes back to something that we've talked about before and I've talked about, and that is our ally, Israel, Iran's -- you know, doesn't even recognize its right to exist. Iran is constantly causing problems in that region and terror in that region because they despise our friend Israel.

Our president has stood with Israel. Our president has stood with the Middle East to find a real peace. But he can only do that when you actually stand up to thugs and the way you stand up to thugs is you show force.

Force is what is recognized. The president understands that. And I think that's what makes the difference here.

And, you know, there's been a lot of folks lately and you've heard it as well as I have from the mainstream media about how our intelligence community doesn't work with this president, the State Department doesn't.

They're just, you know, undergoing -- but right now, what we see is that vast majority of people who know how to do their job and when the military pulls it off and when all these components are there and you have the right commander-in-chief, then it comes together.

CHAFFETZ: Now, look, though, the world is a better place tonight. I thought it was a proportional response, not overstepping the line, but doing what needed to be done. And a huge hats off to the military and our intelligence community.

Congressman Collins, thank you so much. Thanks for your military service.

COLLINS: You bet.

CHAFFETZ: And thanks for joining us tonight.

Coming up, more reaction to the huge breaking news out of Iraq. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHAFFETZ: This is a Fox News alert.

If you're joining us, the top Iranian commander, Qassem Soleimani has been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq. But Democrats are already using this huge development to go after the president.

Senator Murphy tweeted, quote: Soleimani was an enemy of the United States.

The question is this -- as reports suggest, did America just assassinate without any congressional authorization the second most powerful person in Iran, knowingly setting you have a potential massive regional war, end quote.

And breaking just now, the Department of Defense released a statement confirming the death of the Iranian leader, stating, quote: At the direction of the president, the United States military has taken decisive, defensive action to protect U.S. military abroad by killing Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization, end quote.

Joining us now for reaction are Fox News contributors Karl Rove and Ari Fleischer.

Karl Rove and Ari, you both served in administrations.

What's your reaction tonight, Karl, to what you see happening?

KARL ROVE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, let's put this in context.

Soleimani was the highest-ranking official on the Quds Force. He is a close ally and associate of Ayatollah Khamenei who put him in charge of this project. He has the blood of many American soldiers on his hands.

He is the guy who engineered it so the Iraqis who were fighting against the U.S. had explosive charge, IEDs, with what are called safe charges -- so they could -- the special devices they could literally blow a hole through the most heavily armored vehicles we had.

The Iraqis were not able to develop this themselves. It required sophistication. It was beyond their skill. And this is a guy who gave them those weapons.

By 2007, I think it was, about 2/3 of the U.S. casualties were a direct result of these munitions being given to the Iraqis by -- by Soleimani.

He's also the guy who after that, as we got more and more sophisticated in tracking down the bad guys, he's the guy who gave them special rocket mortars that were highly accurate and could be moved very quickly called IRAMs. And this guy hates American, he's killed our people. He is the architect of the Iranian efforts to control not only Iraq, but to play a major role in Syria and to put increasing pressure on Israel.

And his death tonight is a major victory, not only for the United States of America, but also for the cause of stability and moderation in the Middle East.

CHAFFETZ: Ari, what's your reaction to what you're seeing tonight?

ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I just remember when Osama bin Laden was killed, and all Americans came together and cheered that event where the military was able to carry that action out. And I hope the same thing happens here with the death of Soleimani. He's the world's leading terrorist. He's been active with Hezbollah, with Hamas, within Yemen. And as Karl pointed out, he has blood on his hands from the killing of more than 600 Americans in Iraq.

The other really important thing to keep your eye on in terms of what comes next are the streets of Iran. You know, the Iranian people have been leading a revolution, a rebellion against their government knowing what dictatorship it is, one of the youngest, most pro-Western Europe throughout the Middle East, the Persian community in Iran.

And I'm curious to see, they're going to celebrate this as well, because you know, many of those protests have said, end the Iranian aggression in other nations. Stop spending our Iranian money on these wars abroad, supporting terrorists. So, I think it's entirely possible this is going to be a catalyst inside Iran where the people celebrate this killing of Soleimani and puts pressure on the Iranian government to stop its terrorism, stop supporting an all of the various terrorist movements it has around the world.

And one other point about the attack tonight.

CHAFFETZ: Ari, I have to --

(CROSSTALK)

FLEISCHER: -- head of Hezbollah is also killed in this attack. And that's significant.

CHAFFETZ: I've got to thank you both, but the fact that this Iranian leader was killed in Baghdad I think says a lot about what's going on here.

We appreciate it.

More on tonight's breaking news after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHAFFETZ: This is a Fox News alert. The Pentagon has confirmed the United States has killed the head of Iran's elite forces.

Trace Gallagher has the latest -- Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And the breaking news, Jason, is the statement from the Pentagon that reads, in part, quoting here: At the direction of the president, the U.S. military has taken decisive, defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Quds Force, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization.

General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for deaths of hundreds of American and coalition members and the wounding of thousands more.

Needless to say, Jason, very big victory for the U.S. military tonight.

CHAFFETZ: Certainly was. Trace Gallagher, thank you very much.

Joining us more on tonight's breaking news are FOX News contributors Sara Carter and Dan Bongino.

Sara, what's your action to what's going down right now?

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, this certainly was an important and decisive action by President Trump. I mean, it was actionable intelligence, which means the president had to act swiftly in targeting Soleimani. I have been hearing from sources that personnel are not only high alert in Iraq, but on alert throughout the region, and throughout the world, believe it or not, because the IRGC had its fingers in almost every part to this planet. That was a terrorist operating organization run by a warlord, Qassem Soleimani.

So, the FBI, I'm sure, in the United States is on alert, everybody is on alert throughout the world, ensuring that if there is any type of response from Iran on this, that we will decisively target Iran in case of any escalation.

CHAFFETZ: Now, the United States is going to defend itself, isn't it, Dan.

Now, I got 40 seconds to get your reaction to what you're seeing tonight.

DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, Jason. We didn't ask for this fight. The president has done everything in his power to stay out of these types of conflicts. But if you're going to keep poking the bear, you better be prepared to leave the region in a body bag.

No one was bathed in more blood than Soleimani. He's been doing this for 20 years. He's been doing this in Iraq. He's been doing this in Bahrain.

He's been doing this in Syria, in Yemen, in Lebanon and now, he is no more.

His reign of terror is over tonight, thanks to President Trump.

CHAFFETZ: Sara and Dan, thank you very much.

Stay with Fox News Channel for continuing coverage of this breaking story.

Raymond Arroyo is in for Laura tonight.

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